C99 Supercollider Contact Beam
The C99 Supercollider Contact Beam, also referred simply as the Contact Beam, is an engineering tool designed to pound and soften hard, raw minerals into smaller pieces. Sometimes miners need to pound a stubborn rock into pieces, softening it so it can be extracted in different ways. That's where a C99 Supercollider Contact Beam comes in. Part jackhammer and part energy wrecking ball, the tool is extremely powerful but the primary fire has to be charged for a short time until it is ready to be fired. Design Details Like the Force Gun, the Contact Beam is an energy projector tool that utilizes kinetic energy. As its name suggests, it is a miniaturized particle accelerator intended for mining operations. The Contact Beam utilizes three blue laser reticules as its firing indicator in Dead Space, similar to that of the Plasma Cutter, albeit slightly narrower and in a vertical line. In Dead Space 2, the crosshair is changed to a single dot. To operate to its actual purpose, the Contact Beam needs to be charged for a brief period. When fully charged and fired, the Contact Beam delivers a huge kinetic discharge that obliterates anything it comes into contact. As such, the weapon trades speed and precision for damage. The discharge is very powerful to the point where most Necromorphs can be killed by one shot. If not charged, the Contact Beam acts as a simple short-range weapon. The Contact Beam's secondary fire acts much like the Pulse Rifle's where it unleashes a small radial ground-based shockwave that knocks objects away from the wielder. Variants *Hacker Contact Beam (primary fire charge reduced by 0.1 seconds, secondary fire radius increase by 50%) *Heavy-Duty Contact Beam (primary fire charge reduced by 0.1 seconds, damage 5%) Ammunition Ammunition for the Contact Beam can be purchased in the Store for 2,000 credits for one shot. In Dead Space 2, the ammo is 4,000 credits for two shots, this means that contact ammo drops are worth 2,000 credits, making them the most valuable ammo drop in the game. Combat Tips * The Contact Beam is one of the most powerful and difficult weapons to wield in the Dead Space. The primary fire takes one second (when not fully upgraded) to completely charge up while the primary fire button is held down. Once mastered, the Contact Beam can be deadly; however, its small magazine size and sparse ammunition drops make accuracy of paramount importance. * The primary fire is powerful enough to kill nearly every creature regardless of where the shot hits, so simply focus on hitting the creature. The Contact Beam is highly effective against Brutes as a single shot behind the Brute is capable of slicing an arm off. In Dead Space 2, a single shot from the front can sever a Brute arm. If the player manages to fully upgrade their Contact Beam's damage, a single shot can even instantly kill a Brute (except on Impossible mode). The secondary fire is best used when the player is surrounded or cornered by Necromorphs, as it can knock them back and buy time for an escape. It should be noted that this should be used primarily as a means of creating breathing room between you and your enemies. It should not be employed at a means of damaging enemies, as damage from the blast is negligible. *The Contact Beam's primary fire does not travel through multiple enemies and it should be focused at one at a time. This makes it a poor weapon for crowd control, so consider switching to a different weapon if you are being swarmed by a large number of enemies. *Ammunition comes very sparsely across the game, where a single pack of Contact Energy only has enough charge to power one shot. Packs can only hold four shots (6 in Dead Space 2) before more inventory space is used. * The secondary firing mode is capable of taking out many Swarmers with one shot, even on impossible mode. You can use it to give yourself some breathing room if they get too close - if you have the ammo to spare. It will even kill them if they have already grabbed on to you, making this a great emergency tool if you're ambushed by a large group of them. * The Contact Beam is highly effective against the Leviathan's tentacles - a well-placed shot can sever a tentacle in a single blow, especially with a damage upgrade. * If Isaac is hit when alt-firing, he will still take damage but the firing animation is not disrupted unless the damage taken is enough to kill Isaac. * The primary fire will briefly stun weaker Necromorphs if the beam travels close enough to them, even when it never hits them. However, this doesn't seem to deal damage. *When fully upgraded in Dead space 2, it takes 0.4 seconds to charge up, which means it can fire almost three shots per second. It is actually faster than some of the heavier tools such as Line Gun or Javelin Gun. * In Dead Space 2, the alt-fire is far more powerful than in the original Dead Space. It can now one-shot any existing common Necromorphs, including Enhanced Slashers if they're close enough to Isaac. Furthermore, it will stasis all enemies caught in its blast radius when upgraded. * In Dead Space 2 it is the most valuable ammo to sell, at 1000 credits each, 2 per drop(normal difficulty). If you have the space, it can be useful to keep in inventory. * In Dead Space 2 the Contact Beam's ammo stack size has been increased to 6 per equipment slot. * The Contact Beam is the most effective weapon for the final battle in Dead Space 2. On Normal difficulty, a single shot can expose the final boss' weak point, and a second shot can destroy it, ending the fight before you are overwhelmed by the unending onslaught of other adversaries. On higher difficulties it can take 2-3 barrages like this to destroy the boss, but every time it is rendered vulnerable the Pack disappears, thus making this a relatively safe and easy battle. On Zealot difficulty, a fully upgraded (primary firing) Contact Beam can end the fight in under 8 seconds, before any of the Pack can reach you. * The Contact beam can kill Pregnants without releasing its swarm, no matter where you hit, especially when upgraded, and even on harder difficulties. * On harder difficulties, it is vital to remember that releasing the aim button (LT or R2 on consoles) will cancel any pointless or accidental charges; since Contact ammo is scarce even on easy difficulties, any waste can severely hinder progress or even survival. Trivia *There are contradictions to the weight of the Contact Beam. Isaac was seen leaning when handling it, indicating it is heavy. However, Nathan McNeill was able to use it with one hand, after his other had been severed, indicating it is lightweight, or that he is stronger than Isaac. *Despite its size, it takes a relatively short time to reload, even when not upgraded. Isaac simply needs to put in a new battery and he's done. In Dead Space 2 however, Isaac needs to let the weapon vent steam for a considerable amount of time until upgraded. *It makes a comeback in Dead Space 2 like the rest of the usable weapons in the original Dead Space. *In Dead Space 2, when Isaac reloads the Contact Beam it vents a considerable amount of heat. *In Dead Space 2, if you had played the game Dead Space: Ignition and have a save game, you get a Hacker Contact Beam to go along with the Hacker RIG. *Like most of the weapons in Dead Space 2 it has it's own trophy/achievement called "C-Section". To earn it, you must knock an enemy down with the alt-fire then kill it with the primary fire before it gets up. *In Dead Space, killing 30 enemies with the Contact Beam earns the "Full Contact" Achievement/Trophy. *There is a glitch on Dead Space 2, when Isaac touches a Necromorph corpse killed by stasis-upgraded alt-fire blast, sometimes the corpse will 'hit' him. *In Dead Space 2 if the player sets the aiming mode to Classic, the reticles will be the 3 dots like in DS1. Appearances *''Dead Space'' *''Dead Space: Extraction'' *''Dead Space 2'' Gallery File:Hacker_RIG.jpg|Hacker Contact Beam with a matching Hacker RIG File:Heavy_beam.jpg|Heavy-Duty Contact Beam with a matching Heavy-Duty Vintage RIG File:Hacker_contact_beam2.jpg|Artwork of the Hacker Contact Beam File:Contact Beam.jpg|As seen in DS1 TROP040.png|The "Full Contact" achievement/trophy dead_space_contact_beam.jpg|A close-up view of the Contact Beam Csection.jpg|The "C-Section" trophy/achievement Sources